Footnotes;

Page 1

FOOTNOTES
Downhill hotel. Richard D. Lothar-ius,
formerly of Miami and now a senior
accountant in our office in Lima, Peru,
arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on busi­ness
late one night. He checked into the
city's leading hotel, picturesquely lo­cated
on the banks of the Guayas river.
When he entered his room, he had the
strange feeling that he was walking
downhill. Shrugging it off as something
akin to battle fatigue, he got into bed,
rolled over, and right out of bed. He
got back into bed, thinking how badly
he needed a vacation. The next morn­ing,
things hadn't improved. When he
opened the closet door, he found it
wouldn't stay closed unless latched. In
the shower, he kept sliding to one side.
This, he decided, was more than his
imagination. When he got downstairs,
he learned that the building did lean
several degrees. He was assured that
there was no danger, but for the re­mainder
of his stay, he chose another
hotel. It wasn't that he was scared, he
reports. It was just that he couldn't
keep the pictures on the wall from
hanging crooked.
Executive Office changes. The Exec­utive
Office announced the following
transfers effective on or about June 5,
1967:
Michael N. Chetkovich, partner-in-charge
of the San Francisco office, will
transfer to the Executive Office to assist
Managing Partner John W Queenan in
the general administration of the Firm.
Thomas B. Hogan, partner-in-charge
of the New York office, will transfer to
the Executive Office. He will assist
Partner Malcolm M. Devore in the ad­ministration
of domestic offices and will
handle practice development and spe­cial
assignments.
John S. Schumann, Executive Office
partner, will transfer to the New York
office to become partner-in-charge.
Four and a half years' work. The pile
of volumes on the desk of Harold S.
Moffet, partner-in-charge of DPH&S
Montreal (see page 17), represents
four and a half years of effort by "a
tremendous concentration of talent," to
quote Mr. Moffet. The six volumes, con­taining
about 2,600 pages, make up
the report of the Royal Commission
on Taxation, appointed in 1962.
Six outstanding Canadians comprised
the commission, representing account­ancy,
economics, finance, industry, agri­culture
and consumers. A large staff of
researchers, economists, tax specialists,
accountants and others worked full
time on the project. Extensive studies
were contributed by the Canadian Tax
Foundation, universities and other bod­ies.
Public hearings were held through­out
Canada. "The task," says Mr. Mof­fet,
"was colossal." He adds:
"After examining various alterna­tives,
the commission has recommended
several concepts that are new to the
Canadian tax scene. Among these are
taxing the income of families as op­posed
to individuals in the family
group; the integration of personal and
corporation income taxes; and the es­tablishment
of a comprehensive tax
based on economic power whether it
arises from personal earnings, operat­ing
a business, selling property or the
receipt of a gift. There are many rec­ommendations
to make the task of the
tax evader more difficult and to stream­line
the machinery of administration
and enforcement."
Mr. Moffet calls the report "the most
comprehensive study of taxation ever
undertaken in Canada."
In behalf of CPAs. Managing Part­ner
John W Queenan recently joined
other leaders of accountancy to help set
the record straight in a flurry of press
reports indicating that the profession
is under fire. The reports evidently
stemmed from a number of lawsuits in­stituted
against some accountants. "It
is probable that the number of lawsuits
has been greatly exaggerated," Mr.
Queenan told the press. "Certainly they
attack only an infinitesimal portion of
the total practice. Nonetheless, the ac­counting
profession is alert to any in­dication
of unhappiness with its serv­ices
and, in those cases where alleged
weaknesses are found to be real, is mak­ing
progress in eliminating them."
Meet Peter Costigan. J. Peter Costi-gan,
Jr., has been named to a newly
created position in the E.O. personnel
department, that of Professional Place­ment
Director. Mr. Costigan, as head of
his own concern, has been assisting
H&S for many years, recruiting person­nel
for the Firm (principally MAS) as
well as for clients. He says the new po­sition
he occupies evolved out of that
work. It was established to enable us
to do more effectively what we have
sought to do for many years—to assist
clients seeking professional accounting
and executive personnel and to help
our staff accountants who want to pur­sue
their careers in private concerns.
Peter Costigan says that, in his new
position, he will be offering a service
that clients have been increasingly re­questing,
"maybe because they believe
we understand the people in this field."
Unlike the practice followed by some
other firms, H&S's service to its clients
"will not be on a fee basis."
Moves between offices. Harry E.
Barth, staff accountant, from Houston
to Dallas. Steven G. Bauer, staff ac­countant,
from Los Angeles to Orange
County (Calif.). Donald J. Benson,
staff accountant, from Newark to New
York. Richard W Bergstrasser, staff ac­countant,
from Newark to Executive
Office. Andre Bouchard, staff account­ant
(MAS), from Houston to Chicago.
Hugh T. Clark, Jr., staff accountant,
from Newark to Executive Office. Barry
J. Knamm, staff accountant, from Mi­ami
to Rochester. Paul A. Makowski,
staff accountant, from New York to
Rochester. Freddie C. Ryan, staff ac­countant,
from Houston to Chicago.
William G. Van Note, Jr., consultant
(MAS), from Rochester to Philadel­phia.
John K. Whalen, staff accountant,
from Buffalo to Rochester.
9